Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Down 1.5%

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) fell 1.5% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $432.51 and last traded at $436.54. 6,613,584 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 18,238,789 shares. The stock had previously closed at $443.29.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $565.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $540.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $525.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.10 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $492.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $406.97.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 552 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.00, for a total transaction of $256,128.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 34,168 shares in the company, valued at $15,853,952. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at $36,157,645.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 552 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.00, for a total transaction of $256,128.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 34,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,853,952. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,257,291 shares of company stock worth $612,916,087. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,960,215,000 after buying an additional 3,104,550 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,054,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,469,906,000 after buying an additional 927,491 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,890,950,000 after buying an additional 1,184,978 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,296,383,000 after buying an additional 1,083,719 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.